All people have a right to work with dignity. That’s a central principle of Partners’ commitment to human rights. And since the beginning, our work has prioritized binding, enforceable agreements between workers & companies to make workers’ rights real – not just more corporate talking points.

“Profoundly groundbreaking” is how Mark Anner, dean and distinguished professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, described the impacts of the agreement between Fruit of the Loom and the Honduran garment workers’ union. In the course of 15 years, that agreement has enabled unions to transform working conditions and wages in Fruit of the Loom’s Honduran factories, and done something almost unheard of in today’s economy: pushed back on the global race to the bottom for lower wages and working conditions.

Now Fruit of the Loom’s new CEO is jeopardizing all that progress. Instead of his predecessor’s commitment to human rights, Jeff Cohen seems to be endorsing a strategy of union-busting. Early this year, Fruit of the Loom announced that they aim to close their last two union factories in Honduras, putting more than 3,000 people out of work and devastating entire communities That’s a blow to decent work for working people not just in Honduras, but across the world.

But we’re not going to stand for it. That’s why Partners is convening a coalition of labor and human rights groups, student activists, and investors to demand that Fruit of the Loom keeps the Jerzees Nuevo Dia and Confecciones Dos Caminos factories open.

This isn’t the first time that a global coalition has demanded that Fruit of the Loom respect workers’ rights. Last time, we won – and won groundbreaking protections for workers.
We’re going to need all the support we can get to win again.

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Together we can win work with dignity for all working people.